In 1948, the United Nations Genocide Convention defined genocide as any of five “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”:
- killing members of the group
- causing them serious bodily or mental harm
- imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group
- preventing births
- forcibly transferring children out of the group.
Victims are targeted because of their real or perceived membership of a group, not randomly. The indiscriminate murder of a people based on perceived membership is often also described as “the epitome of human evil” by scholars.
What we currently are witnessing amidst the Israel-Gaza War is awful. The indiscriminate murder of a people, such as the Palestinians, shouldn’t be condoned in this day and age, and yet, here we are.
But Palestinians have faced genocide for 75 years, and nobody seems to bat an eye given the perpetrators’ characteristics – aside from NGOs, human rights activists, and some scholars, of course.
“How could the victims of genocide possibly commit genocide themselves?” is something that is voiced frequently amidst Israeli propaganda.
So, I wanted to write a post about this.
Propaganda
I am condemning Israel’s government, not the people. The people living in Israel aren’t the government. Similarly, I condemn Hamas, obviously, but the people in the Gaza Strip and Palestina aren’t Hamas, even if Israel claims that that’s the case.
When I say “Israel” in this post, I mean the government, not the people.
Israel has tried to justify their genocide by claiming that all the victims were terrorists in hiding. The sick, elderly, pregnant, the young and the unborn… all of them. The journalists, NGOs, politicians… the teachers, the caretakers, the doctors, the florists and lawyers… all of them are Hamas in Israel’s government’s eyes.
Atrocious. Truly evil.
But obviously, Hamas is evil, too. They are democratically elected terrorists that present as the de-facto government in Gaza. They take hostages, they murder people indiscriminately… but what Israel does is worse. That’s my stance on it. I do not condone Hamas but if they didn’t exist, Israel would have razed the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth already.
Genocide
Perhaps the biggest factor in “genocide”, according to the UN definition, is intent. There has to be intent to destroy a people for it to constitute genocide.
Whether or not Israel intends to do so is not up for debate.
Many different politicians have called for Nakba or for violence. They are inciting hate crimes. Israel is very open about their intent to destroy Palestinians and to raze the Gaza Strip off the face of the Earth, so I don’t see how anyone could argue that it’s not what’s happening here.
Most recently, Israel’s Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter called for a “Nakba 2023”.
Nakba is used to refer to the events of ’48 when armed Zionist militias forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to leave their homes under the pressure of mass massacres in the historical lands of Palestine. It means “the catastrophe” and refers to a major ethnical cleansing move prior to Israel’s announcement of independence.
Avi Dichter called for Nakba 2023.
Israel’s MK Ariel Kallner called for a “second Nakba in Gaza”.
National Security Minister Ben-Gvir called “for any Hamas supporters to be eliminated”.
Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich voiced support for the idea to nuke Gaza: “Flatten the Strip!”
MK Vissim Vaturi called for “Gaza to be burned down“.
Israel’s MP Galit Distel Atbaryan advocated for the erasure of Gaza.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant dehumanized Palestinans as “animals”.
And well, Netanyahu deleted a tweet calling Gaza “children of darkness” and referring to them as animals by stating that “this is a struggle […] between humanity and the jungle”.
These are just a few of countless examples of Israeli politicians dehumanizing Palestinians, calling for the destruction of their lands, their people, their culture, and their ethnicity.
It’s vile.
Adding onto this, Israel has kept a tight grasp on Gaza, withholding water, electricity, and medical supplies from them during this and more.
On top of that, Gaza doesn’t really have an economy because they aren’t allowed to import or export any goods. The vast majority of the Gaza Strip’s population is living in poverty, trapped inside this open-air prison waiting for the day that they’ll either die or get killed.
This is inhumane.
The UN definition of Genocide also has a section about “genocidal acts” that also lists these two acts as acts that facilitate genocide.
“Less obvious methods of destruction, such as the deliberate deprivation of resources needed for the group’s physical survival and which are available to the rest of the population, such as clean water, food and medical services; […] Creation of circumstances that could lead to a slow death, such as lack of proper housing, clothing and hygiene or excessive work or physical exertion.”
It’s why Gaza hasn’t faced genocide just now and why this isn’t “retaliation for October 7th”, as Israel claims…
They’ve been at this for 75 years.
Deprivation of resources needed for survival? Sounds familiar.
Creation of circumstances leading to a slow death? Where did I hear that before?
Israel’s Apartheid System
Now, there is a lot to this topic, of course, and I won’t be able to talk about everything, but something that is really important to me is the way that Israel doesn’t just commit atrocities to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
A talking point I hear a lot is that Israel doesn’t have anything against Palestinians as a people because Palestinians are treated humanely in Israel itself… which is wrong.
Israel has an Apartheid system in place where Jews are treated humanely whereas Palestinians see oppression within the state.
On this note, I highly recommend checking out this article from Human Rights Watch’s website.
“In 2018, the Knesset passed a law with constitutional status affirming Israel as the “nation-state of the Jewish people,” declaring that within that territory, the right to self-determination “is unique to the Jewish people” […]” – or so the article states.
This means, in essence, that the right to nationality is something that only Jewish people in Israel possess. It’s incredibly difficult to move to Israel. For Palestinians, it’s even worse to move out of Israel or out of Gaza due to the fundamental hurdles placed upon them. The article elaborates on this by stating that “while Palestinians in Israel, unlike those in the OPT, have the right to vote and stand for Israeli elections, these rights do not empower them to overcome the institutional discrimination they face from the same Israeli government”.
They cannot reunite with their families, they cannot combat the demolition of their homes, and they cannot fight against the forceful eviction and confiscation of their lands. People in the Gaza Strip are in an open-air prison that keeps them enclosed there, like animals, waiting for the day they get released, via bombing.
Here’s a news article on a Palestinian family being evicted from their family home in Jerusalem where they’ve lived since the 1950s.
Amnesty also has a great article on the matter of Apartheid systems in Israel, so give that a read while you’re here.
But it doesn’t stop there. Israel isn’t incredibly queer-friendly but knows that both homophobia and apartheid aren’t a great look for them. So, they started a process of “pinkwashing” to essentially improve their image and slowly but surely attempt to sell Israel as a paradise for gay people.
Heck, MK Smotrich did organize a “beast parade” against Pride and even claimed that the Pride Parade touched off the Covid wave in an attempt to attack queer people in Israel even though no link between this and that was proven at the time.
Discrimination and hate crimes against queer people in Israel were on the rise in 2022, and even if it’s not outright hate crimes, there are many queer individuals that face categoric discrimination in business and especially when seeking asylum.
On that note, this article from 972 shines a great light on the way Israel puts LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers through hell. Permits to live there are only granted for a few months at a time and don’t include a work permit. Life in poverty on top of discrimination in businesses on top of the discrimination against Palestinians… yeah.
There have been reports of people being forcefully outed in front of their families which isn’t safe even in Western countries, let alone Israel.
Frankly, it’s appalling how Israel tries to market itself as a haven for queer people when the reality is so far off. Their 2018 ESC contestant and winner, Netta, makes frequent appearances on Pride Parades… but it just rubs me the wrong way. It’s just pinkwashing, and that sucks.
What now?
Perhaps it’s a bit weird to talk about queer rights and genocide in the same post but I just wanted to showcase Apartheid, discrimination and human rights violations within Israel alongside their intent to destroy a people outside of their state. Pardon me if that was a bit jarring in combination. There’s a method, a purpose, but I’m not the best at this.
Apologies for not talking about every single atrocity committed by Israel and the IDF soldiers during this on-going conflict. There’s just way too much.
Now, what do we do? Frankly, I don’t know. But there’s great resources further down below at the end of the post. Go check those out!
I do take part in protests whenever I’m able to do so. I have my own health issues and RL obligations that I cannot postpone, but there are protests in support of Gaza non-stop and I try to attend as many as I can.
But not everyone is in a position to do so… Not everyone is able-bodied or has a means of transportation or even the funds to take time off work or to travel somewhere to protest. Not everyone can do that.
So, if you have a platform, be vocal about it. Be loud. Show your solidarity, your support for Gaza… if you want to, of course.
I for one have been writing this post here whenever I could and I for one think that this may or may not help a little bit in not just showing my support but also raising awareness on the legal definitions of “genocide” and the absolute slaughter of a people that the world appears to support.
On another note, this isn’t antisemitism.
This isn’t about anyone’s religion. This isn’t about any specific people.
It’s about one government trying to eradicate an ethnicity… and the world supporting this.
Heck, if Hitler and Nazi Germany were still around and someone criticized them for the Holocaust, you wouldn’t suddenly call them “German-phobes”, right? That’d be silly, no?
If you really have to attack me or anyone over their support for Gaza, go touch some grass.
Resources
This document has a list of a bunch of resources. From charities you can support to historical resources and even tips for protests and the like.
Definitely worth checking out!
Thanks for reading.
Aside from that, btw, I’d also like to highlight this video here as it goes really hard and as I like JohntheDuncan as a creator a lot.
I’d also recommend checking out DemocracyNow and Al Jazeera English if you haven’t yet. Very informative channels on the Tube.
And well, I like Noah Samsen’s videos, for the most part, so check out this video by him. It’s pretty great.
This post was originally written by Dan Dicere from Indiecator.
If you see this article anywhere other than Indiecator.org then this article has been scraped. Please let me know about this via E-Mail.
Indiecator 
Thanks for writing about this. One side of my family was dispossessed and driven out of Palestine in the Nakba of 1948, so I have a strong emotional investment in the issue. Also being an American, I’ve been frustrated to no end by some of the responses to the war and genocide (naturally, denial that there is a genocide, denial of the root causes that gave killers like Hamas power and influence in the first place, etc. etc.) There’s a lot that’s whitewashed about the history of Israel and its treatment not only of Palestinians, but as you’ve said, also of some of its own people.
At least more people are finally coming to understand the reality of the situation. The no-strings-attached aid to Israel, the absolute and unwavering support in the face of war crimes and ethnic cleansing, it all has to stop. In the long run, that’s in Israelis’ interests as well — the path Netanyahu and his supporters have always chosen is a criminal and bloody one, and it will ensure that the land will never see peace unless appropriate pressure is applied or unless Israelis themselves finally oust these warmongers.
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AK, I’m sorry to hear about what has happened to your family. Personally, I’m quite invested in this issue and has been for ages because of how similar what is happening there is to what happened to my family during the Balkan wars.
And as you mentioned already, there’s way too much whitewashing going on. It’s horrible. The US has to help Israel due to their previous treaties but I just wish that so many more countries would see this war for what it is: a genocide.
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